Romania’s far-right presidential candidate has vowed to cut off aid to Ukraine.

Calin Georgescu, the nationalist politician leading the Romanian presidential race, has told the BBC he will end all support for Ukraine if elected.

He faces a runoff in Sunday’s election, where he will face off against former TV presenter Elena Lasconi, who is campaigning on a strongly pro-EU platform.

Georgescu, whose only election campaigning has been on social media, said he would make “the Romanian people” his priority.

But he denied that his astonishing success so far was the result of a Russia-backed influence operation on social media, saying he did not care about the “lies” of his country’s intelligence agencies because he worked with God and the people. Was doing.

On Wednesday, in a highly unusual move, Romania’s outgoing president published declassified documents detailing a massive and “highly organized” campaign to oust Georgescu on TikTok, coordinated by a “state actor.”

The papers included an intelligence assessment that Russia was carrying out hybrid attacks on Romania, which it views as an “enemy state”.

The Constitutional Court is now being flooded with requests to look into allegations of interference with a view to possibly annulling the elections.

Prosecutors announced today that they are opening a criminal investigation but have no timeline for when it will conclude.

“They’re afraid,” was how Georgescu dismissed evidence that hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent pushing campaign material for him, breaking both Romanian election law and TikTok’s own rules.

He ridiculed Romania’s “non-intelligence agencies” and denied that he was a “Moscow man”.

“They cannot accept that the Romanian people finally said, ‘We want our life, our country, our dignity back’,” he said, portraying himself as fighting against an unyielding establishment.

In a sometimes acrimonious interview, in which he praised Donald Trump and Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orbán, Georgescu referred to Vladimir Putin as a “patriot and leader.”

Then he added: “But I’m not a fan.”

But when questioned about Russia’s war on Ukraine, he first asked, “Are you sure about that?”, denying the existence of the war.

He then said that Romania was only interested in establishing peace on its border, but refused to say that it should be on Kiev’s terms.

When asked whether he agreed to stand by Ukraine for, as the EU says, “as long as it takes”, Georgescu said “No.” He said that things will change.

He responded, “I just agree that I have to take care of my people. I don’t want to involve my people in this.” He made clear that Romania – an EU and NATO member – would not provide any military or political support to its neighbour.

“Zero. Everything stops. I just have to take care of my people. We’ve got a lot of problems ourselves.”

This would be a dramatic change of situation for Bucharest, and music to Russian ears.

The President in Romania has considerable powers, including influence over areas such as foreign policy. He is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and appoints the Prime Minister.

Romania shares a long border with Ukraine and has been a staunch supporter of Kiev since a full-scale invasion in 2022.

It has also provided financial support for the Patriot missile defense system as well. It has also become a major export route for Ukrainian grain, as Russian bombing has disrupted the work of ports there.

Under Georgescu’s presidency, Romania would join Hungary and Slovakia as pro-Russian allies on NATO’s eastern flank.

It would also be a serious blow to EU solidarity over Ukraine, as it faces the prospect of assuming greater responsibility for assisting Kiev with the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

Georgescu underlined that he would keep Romania inside the EU and NATO, but from now on everything would be “negotiated” and focused on his country’s interests.

He declined to say that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a security threat to the West.

Romania is home to a huge NATO military base close to the Black Sea, as well as a US missile defense facility.

Georgescu now describes himself as a university teacher, but has previously worked at the Foreign Ministry and the United Nations.

He clearly has supporters – his clean-living, Romania-first message has popular appeal, especially outside Bucharest.

But many in the capital are worried about where their country is headed.

This evening, protesters will gather in central Bucharest to call for Romania to remain closer to Europe.

When asked if he understood why they were scared, Georgescu shook his head: “It’s just propaganda.”